“The mixing of factual and counterfactual is not singular to sci fi and fantasy,” Timothy Zahn (“Thrawn Trilogy”) began. Zahn and Brandon Sanderson (“Mistborn”), Cory Doctorow (Homeland), David Brin (“Uplift”), Elizabeth Bear (Shattered Pillars), and John Scalzi (“Old Man’s War”) were charged with talking about the probable and improbable in science fiction (and, to a certain extent, in fantasy too). Organized by the Library and Information Technology Association and with help from Tor, the Saturday, June 28 panel was packed.

Alice Walker wore purple.
It was not the last official day of the American Library Association (ALA) annual conference in Chicago, but the McCormick Center’s auditorium had a kind of concluding air about it. (Perhaps it was the number of librarians carting luggage up and down the halls.) Eva Poole, President of the Public Library Association (PLA), introduced Monday’s midmorning speaker. The audience settled into its seats.
When she arrived at the podium, she sighed. “I’m so glad to see you.”

What makes library Tumblrs different from your run-of-the-mill library blogs is that they can take advantage of a built-in community with built-in readers. If a Wordpress or Blogspot blog is an island, Tumblr blogs are a city. Many librarians were initially attracted to Tumblr for the same reasons nonlibrarians were—ease of use, social features, the cool factor. But, once they arrived, they began to run into each other, then to talk to with one another, and finally to understand themselves as a community. The portmanteau Tumblarians—meaning “Tumblr librarians”—was coined and a subculture born.

So many books, so little time. That’s the problem with cruising the show floor at the American Library Association conference, which is why Library Journal has a galley guide especially for you. The guide has been my sole focus this week, as I’ve wrapped up all my December 2013 coverage. So you can do two […]